I have good experiences with gingko, cat's claw and rodiola as admixtures.

After regular Ayahuasca experience one may come into contact with any number of beings, including Human shamans who may try to recruit you.

The best bet you have is to continue to work with the Medicine and very cautiously make contact with the shaman in your visions. You can ultimately try to locate them if you desire.

Locating people, especially people of shamanic power, is an essential ability of anyone wishing to work with spiritual energy.

People with power glow, they radiate on the astral grid, they send out energy like a beacon to the whole world that I AM a place of power, I AM a place of energy, I AM a place of influence I AM the master of many spirits.

Power draws light, light draws attention, attention draws danger. This shaman you see may very well be a Brujo, an evil magick worker with an arsenal of demonic spirit allies. It is not hard to disguise oneself as a medicine worker to lure in new prey.

Say for instance a Shaman appears to you who says they are dying and want you to join them as an ally so they can train you.

You could have natural shamanic attenuation and perhaps that is why he chose to seek you out. He could become an ally of yours and help you fight strong negative forces which will inevitably find you if you begin this journey. He could also instill your spirit with magick that allows him to control you and use your natural gifts for his own personal gain. He could take your life force and use it to stop him from dying. He may not be dying at all. How would a Brujo more likely lure in a new apprentice? As a powerful sorcerer? No, they would pretend to be a dying shaman saying "Oh please, i am weak, come to me and I will give you my power"

This is playing with fire, if you embark you must be prepared. Shamanism is no joke, the possibility of death becomes greater and greater the more powerful you become. The more power you have the bigger of a target you are. The more power you have the more that other Brujo's and many spirits will be drawn to you to disable you. They have power, they control, they don't want you becoming like them, they don't want you to interfere with their intent.

If you feel this is your calling then pursue trepidatiously. Never give them anything.

Just remember, it is not uncommon in the Amazon for an apprentice to train under what they believe is a Medicine shaman, learning icaro's that they see and believe to be helping people. In actuality, these people are under the perceptual control of the Dark Shaman and every time they sing that "healing icaro" to someone they are actually help the Dark Shaman gain power over that person. Often times the Dark Shaman knows how to heal, and will do so, to "prove" he is good to you. Illusions on top of delusions on top of fallacious visions. Their mind is stronger then yours, they have more experience, more allies.

Proceed with caution but do not hesitate to scrutinize every aspect of your experience, especially when it involves another shaman. Why would he choose you? Some random person with little experience?

Maybe your special? Or maybe you are particularly vulnerable to manipulation. The last thing you want is to become a puppet and a catalyst of evil.


I would be willing to conclude there are more Brujos then Medicine men. Medicine men, though, ultimately carry the power of divine light and on the whole can defeat a Brujo. On the contrary there ARE very powerful Brojos and very novice Medicine men out there.

Brujo's come and go, their life is often short. Dealing with dark spirits can destroy the body. More importantly, dark spirits don't CARE about the shaman, they care about what the Shaman can do for them. Brujo's attack eachother, kill eachother, for the sole purpose of stealing the other's Allies. Once a Brujo dies his allies look for another shaman to share power with and often that is to another Brujo who has been waiting for this particular one to die, perhaps attacking him daily until he does. More reliably, they wait until the Brujo has been attacked by someone else or is in very weak physical condition due to illness then seize the opportunity to finish them off and steal their allies.

Medicine men form Medicine Pacts that are lifelong. They work together in groups to heal people and fight Brujeria together.

In the Amazon many Brujos die before 40 whereas many Medicine men live well past their 80's.

The path to Brujeria is not always a dark demonic slip. As said by several great shamanic authors, ALL Medicine men are always on the brink of Brujeria. The battle is constant and one that requires the upmost conviction of the soul. The power is is unfathomable and all it takes is ONE SINGLE INSTANCE of selfish abuse of power to turn one to the Dark Side.

One may be an apprentice for years then be somewhere where somebody annoys them, nothing in particular, they just annoy them and the Shaman is just focusing on how much that person is annoying them and wishes they would just SHUT UP. Suddenly the person trips, falls, breaks their chin and goes to the hospital. The intent may not have been there but the force of power was. This single instance will turn a Shaman into an abuser of power. One abuse shows them their potential and it is a one way path.

A Medicine man will tell you they have not slipped ONCE. No Master Medicine Shaman has ever used their power for selfish intent, if they have, they would have been taken over by the forces of darkness. Many apprentices have quit their apprenticeship because they feared they could not control their own power, they could not control their own thirst for inacting their personal will.

I recall a story from Hamilton Souther, Master Medicine Shaman at Blue Morpho Tours, he recalls one of his many battles with Brujeria. A particular Brujo had repeatedly been attacking him and his Mesa (The group of Medicine shamans working with him) and got very close to killing him and his associates on many occasions. Hamilton describes how a Medicine man is not allowed to kill, only strip a Brujo of their power. In this instance they tracked the Brujo down and were inside his hut, the Brujo stripped of power and near dead. The heaven's opened up above Hamilton and Angels descended a cosmic holy sword in front of him and told him "Finish him Hamilton, he will kill you if you don't kill him, this is the way"

Hamilton refused, he refused to succumb to the temptation of power, he laid the sword down and said "No, this is not my path, I will not Kill"

The Angels smiled, he had passed their test, he was truly a man of the Medicine.

i'd like to have an opportunity to go back to peru and further my journey with madre aya i just know there is so much more she can show me ..

i donno gamma it just seems to be the best place to drink this brew is where the ingredients naturally grew..........
like one day i would love to visit mexico to get aquainted with peyote
it just makes it more special i think although i wouldn't turn down a good opportunity for drinking the brew at my home if it was readily available .......

ms minxx, this is an awesome post indeed, much appreciated for all the effort in writting this down!!

If I may make one suggestion (as mentioned by another member elsewhere), maybe add a small disclaimer in the 'adding acid' part, that this is not strictly necessary and that traditionally it is done so without acid... ? Not a big deal but I just think its important that people know it is the way you and others do but not an necessarily essential step, and that in the amazon and traditional brews there is no acid added, since alkaloids are already water soluble in natural form.